Earthquake aftershock kills 15 in Pakistan

Sunday

Sep 29, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2013 at 2:45 PM

QUETTA, Pakistan - A major earthquake rocked Pakistan's southwest yesterday, killing at least 15 people and sending panicked residents running into the street just days after another quake in the same region killed hundreds, officials said.

QUETTA, Pakistan — A major earthquake rocked Pakistan’s southwest yesterday, killing at least 15 people and sending panicked residents running into the street just days after another quake in the same region killed hundreds, officials said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website that a magnitude 6.8 quake was felt in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Department measured the quake at magnitude 7.2, saying its epicenter was about 90 miles west of the town of Khuzdar.

Government spokesman Jan Mohammad Buledi said those killed yesterday died in the Mushkay area of Awaran. The death toll from Tuesday’s disaster was 359, he added.

Little might have been left to damage after Tuesday’s disaster. Few of the mud and homemade brick houses in the area survived the magnitude 7.7 quake that leveled villages and buried people in the rubble. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been sleeping under the open sky or in tents.

Chief Pakistani meteorologist Arif Mahmood told Pakistani television that yesterday’s earthquake was an aftershock and that tremors could continue for weeks.

Baluchistan’s rough terrain and the lack of decent roads have made access difficult for rescue workers. The Pakistani Air Force has been air-dropping supplies and using helicopters to ferry injured people.